Downing Street has distanced itself from a Labour MP’s “summer of sex” campaign as it was suggested that the NHS could offer sex education to adults.
This week Samantha Niblett, the MP for South Derbyshire, launched her “Yes Sex Please, We’re British!” campaign before a debate on lifelong sex education in the Commons in the early autumn.
As part of the push, she plans to go on a tour to visit a “whole bank of organisations to speak with and gather information, so we can talk about sex all summer”, as well as holding an exhibition of sex toys in parliament.
However, Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, used the campaign to attack the government in the Commons on Wednesday, and No 10 appeared to distance Sir Keir Starmer from the endeavour.
Kemi Badenoch in the Commons on WednesdayHouse of Commons/PA
Badenoch told the Commons: “This is a moment of profound national seriousness and what are they doing? They are promoting sex toys in parliament. It gives a whole new meaning to fiddling while Rome burns.”
Niblett, 46, said better sex education would improve people’s understanding of consent and prevent abuse and violence, and it would also raise awareness of how childbirth, the menopause, stress and other health conditions can affect sexual satisfaction.
Niblett told Politics Home that she wanted the campaign to be about “taking control of our patriotism, about taking control of our Britishness and not feeling ashamed”.
However, she has faced criticism from some colleagues who felt the campaign distracted from more serious issues. Asked if it was appropriate, the prime minister’s spokesman said: “Samantha Niblett is a backbench MP and I’d point any questions to her.”
Niblett has proposed a parliament sex education debate
On Wednesday Niblett told BBC2’s Politics Live that the information on sex education was “patchy at best”. She said: “If you try and go online to find the information, often information you’re really searching for is shadow banned and accounts can be blocked because certain words describing even anatomy are blocked.”
She added: “It feels like the perfect time to be talking openly. If we can remove shame that’s so frequently associated with sex, it makes it much harder to use it as a weapon against people.”
Tom Hayes, the Labour MP for Bournemouth East, said it was “great” that Niblett wanted to lead on the cause but added that his voters would not “want to talk dirty — I think they want to talk defence”.
He said: “For me, it’s not about a summer of sex. It is about an all-year-round, round-the-clock focus on the cost of living. That’s for me, but other colleagues will talk about a lot of other things. And that’s what makes parliament so great.”
Niblett suggested that the NHS could be a “start” where sex education could continue in adulthood.
She said: “It’s about actually people not turning to pornography as their place of education, which we know a lot of men do as well. And actually that sets up their expectations of what to expect with a woman on the wrong track as well. So yes, it’s lifelong sex education.”
She said she had not had any negative feedback from colleagues “to my face”, adding: “Sometimes they’re telling the media and they’re not telling me. And that’s kind of a shame, really.
“I think it would be braver to come and have the conversation. But actually where there is negative feedback and people thinking it’s inappropriate, my pushback would be, well, let’s have a conversation about it. Why do you think it’s inappropriate? It’s the one thing that most of us have to do to make babies. It’s the one thing most of us want to do.
“I should make it clear as well, if you don’t want to have sex, that also is absolutely OK and nobody should be shamed for feeling that way. But we can’t talk about it if we don’t talk about it.”